Sunday, April 11, 2010

Jam Packed Weekend

This weekend was jam packed with exercise goodness. It started Saturday morning with a 5AM alarm. Melissa got up early to head to North Carolina to pick up her bees. I also woke up to see her off. And when I say, "see her off" really I mean I made sure she was up and then said goodbye and promptly rolled over and went back to sleep.

I did manage to get up, have breakfast, and get out in to the yard by 8:30. I had a lot of work to do to prepare the yard for the arrival of the bees. In the words of rapper Young MC, I had to bust a move. And bust a move I did. I worked hard and fast so I could get all the work done and then drive to Fredericksburg to ride. Around 11, I had finished most everything except cutting the front yard. I decided to take a break and get ready for my ride. I figured I could always finish the front yard in the morning. But I had an issue with my bike and after working on it for a while decided to take it to the shop. I took it to a small shop I go to for minor repairs and then headed home to finish the yard. By the time I got home, the bike was finished. So I boogied through the rest of the yard, headed out to get my bike and instead of going to Fredericksburg, headed down to the river. I had a great 2 hour ride down at the river. I rode Northbank, Belle Island, the Buttermilk, and Forest Hill Park. I felt great.

I arrived home from the river in time to watch the Super Classico (Real Madrid vs Barcelona). The game lived up to the hype and was exciting. Barcelona won 2-0. Of course as usual I iced my knees while watching the game. Around 5:10, I got the call from Melissa that she would be home with the bees in about 20 minutes. So I donned my bee keepers outfit and got the camera ready. When Melissa got home, I filmed and took pictures of the bee installation. After the bee installation it was time for a quick dinner out a our new favorite Thai place. Then home to ice my knees some more on the couch.

On Sunday, I made it to Fredericksburg to explore and ride the trails for my upcoming race. I found much more of the trails than we had the other day when I went up with my friends. There was lots of climbing and some difficult log crossings but the climbs were slightly less steep than what we had done the other day. I know I did not get through the whole course but I feel like I have a better idea of what to expect. I probably could have ridden more but I had a nice endo crash that sent me airborne. I landed right smack in the middle of the trail and luckily I was not still clipped into my bike. I was mostly not hurt and got up and kept riding. But I had lost some of my steam at that point. After I got back to the road, I did a little cool down ride on a paved trail that was quite nice.

After I got home from F'burg, I had lunch with Melissa but I felt like doing some more riding. So I went down to the river and did some more riding. I did not push my luck and did a shorter ride than my river ride from Saturday. On the way home from the river I loaded up on some great food from Whole Foods so I am all set with plenty of fruit and vegetables for the week.

Once I got home and got the groceries unloaded, I did my upper body and core workout. I added another upper body exercise and modified my shoulder presses based on something I read the other day. When I do my overhead dumbbell shoulder presses, I sit on my BOSU ball. To make it more difficult, I held one leg up off the ground. This really made it more difficult. By the time I was done with all my exercises, I was pretty spent. But I was not quite done. I had to make my shake and our dinner. While Melissa worked on our taxes, I got everything going. Then when she told me about our refund, I started to do some impromptu dancing. I was pretty excited because now we can use this money for our upcoming vacation to Vermont. More to come on that topic later.

I realize that this post is not too exciting but I wanted to detail the fact that I had a very busy and very active weekend. Now I need to focus on getting plenty of rest this week in preparation for my race. I will probably do some running and some easy riding this week and try to eat right. I plan to bring my lunch to work a few times this week so I can better control what I put into my body. I am still eating lunches out at restaurants pretty often with some of the guys at work. That is one aspect of my diet I still need to work on. Overall I am doing well but I think I can do even better.

Thanks for reading.

2 comments:

allenq said...

I thoroughly enjoyed this post! Lots of home chores, a good bicycle prep ride, arrival of the bees (no stinging incidents, I presume), and perhaps best of all, a tax refund!!

Vermont should prove interesting. We went with friends back in ’93 and really liked it!

Next comes the big race!!

M Rosen said...

Yes, it was a very busy couple of weeks. I had intended on having the hive outside for at least a week beforehand, but with the 10k and then Easter guests, it did not happen. But it all came together in the end. good luck with the lunch improvement plan. Packing my lunches is not something I ever seem to do.